


Had we but world enough and time

by seekeronthepath



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Severus Snape-centric, Tags May Change, Time Travel, Time Travelling Severus Snape, Young Severus Snape, snape has literally one goal and doesn't give a shit about anything else
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 15,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26609851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekeronthepath/pseuds/seekeronthepath
Summary: "What will you give?""All that I am and will be. All that I have, if it will save her life."On the 1st of November, 1981, Severus Snape made a deal with Time.On the 29th of January, 1975, his second chance began.He didn’t care what it took - this time, Lily was going to live.
Relationships: Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape
Comments: 193
Kudos: 536





	1. Prologue: Out of Time

In the small hours of the night, a man arrived at a house in Godric’s Hollow, and began to search. The house was half rubble now, empty of life, abandoned. The first corpse made him sneer; the second made him drop to his knees. He reached out, pale fingers barely brushing against red hair, then pulled away. His lips formed words, but he did not speak. 

Long minutes later, he stood, and looked around him. He saw the place where a child was not, and the place where the attacker had been, and a wand that should not have been there.

“Phoenix feather…” he murmured, picking it up and turning it in his fingers. With one last look at the woman’s body, he slipped the wand into his robes and left.

\-----

As dawn approached, the man knelt at a crossroads, facing east. He set the phoenix feather wand down before him, pointing to where the sun would rise, then laid his own wand across it. 

He waited, watching the horizon; in the moment that the first rays of sun crossed it, his gaze flicked to the wands, and they burst into flame.

They burned, and burned away, but the fire only grew larger, and the man’s eyes watered from its brightness as it took the shape of a phoenix, but he did not look away.

“ **Why do you summon me?** ” the phoenix said with a thousand voices.

The man did not flinch. “To save a life.” The first price had been paid; there was no turning back.

**“Life is not my domain.”**

“But change is.”

The flames grew brighter, orange shifting to blue, and the man’s face was even paler in the glare.

**“What do you ask for?”**

“The chance I once had to save her, the knowledge I now have, and the time to act upon it.”

**“What will you give?”**

Only now did the man’s voice waver, tears shining on his cheeks. “All that I am and will be,” he said. “All that I have, if it will save her life.”

**“Then step into the flame.”**


	2. 2468

Severus Snape burned until all he was was fire, and then until he was something new, or something old, and he could hear a voice, a familiar voice…

“...understand, my boy, that exposing Mr Lupin for the acts of another would not be just - and expose him we must, if we are to punish Mr Black as you desire.”

The fire burned out, and before him was an infant Fawkes, and Severus _knew_ , all at once, exactly when he was.

“So _Black_ will face no consequences for attempted murder?” he spat, his mouth forming the words he had long remembered. 

The headmaster gave him a sorrowful look over the rim of his glasses. “He did not realise the extent of the danger, Severus, and he is truly remorseful. He deserves a second chance.”

Severus’ lips curled into a sneer, but old reflexes jerked his eyes away, and he knew - the boy he once was, and the man he had become - that to say more was useless. “Yes, Professor,” he said, the words like poison on his tongue, and made his escape.

The years had dulled his memory of Hogwarts’ corridors only slightly, and he slipped through them unnoticed until he reached his hidden laboratory on the second floor. He knew the month, he knew the year, but he didn’t remember his schedule or the day of the week, and before he did _anything_ , he needed to think.

It was the end of January, 1975, and he had almost seven years ahead of him. What was he going to do?

The problem was that Severus had never had control over the events that led to Lily’s death. He had played his part by overhearing and reporting the prophecy; mercifully, he could now undo that. But she was too bright and daring a Muggleborn to avoid the Dark Lord’s notice, and she had married _Potter_ to boot. Even without the prophecy, she made a tempting target. He had no wish to silence her, and no means to affect Voldemort’s power. Dumbledore, perhaps, did, but he had proved himself a useless fool already. Severus would not bend the knee to him again.

He could not ask Lily to help him save her life. He _would_ not ask her. Who else was there that would help him? He had no money, no resources except for his knowledge and skill. He had no allies except for Lily, and persecutors in Gryffindor and Slytherin alike. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws would see only his House, and avoid him. Teachers would dismiss him. 

Except, perhaps…

“What brings you to my office today, Mr Snape?” Professor Flitwick said cheerfully, filling his teapot with a variant on _aguamenti_ and offering Severus a tin of biscuits. “Still looking into variants on the Levitation Charm?”

Severus sat, his shoulders relaxing slightly. Flitwick was capable of immobilising anyone who attacked through the door behind him, _and willing to_. He was as safe here as he was anywhere in Hogwarts. “Actually,” he explained, taking one of the offered biscuits, “I was reading about time turners, and I have some questions.”

“I can’t say I’m an expert on them,” Flitwick replied with a smile. “More of an arithmancy topic than a charms one, but of course you can ask! What’s on your mind?”

Severus had carefully considered how to ask this. Time turners were a very _domesticated_ sort of time travel compared to what he had done: safe, controlled, and creating only stable loops. “I understand the use of time turners to give yourself more time in the day,” he said. “But wouldn’t it be frustrating to be unable to change things? Surely people are tempted to go back and undo their decisions.”

Flitwick nodded thoughtfully. “That is, indeed, one of the chief complaints of people who use time turners.” He took out parchment and quill, and began to sketch a map, or rather, a winding path with occasional offshoots. “Let us imagine a person walking through a forest, one not unlike the one on Hogwarts grounds. As they walk, they gain knowledge of their surroundings.” He let go of the quill, but it continued to move, creating a landscape of trees, hills, swamps, and cliffs around the path he had drawn. “At some point, perhaps, they encounter a dangerous creature, and they think - if only I had taken a different route.” The quill marked five x’s, then put itself away. “Tell me, Mr Snape, what would have happened if they had turned away from the path we have drawn?”

“They would not have encountered the dangerous creature,” Severus replied, but in the large blank spaces of the parchment, he could see what Flitwick meant. “But without a more detailed map, we cannot predict what they _would_ have encountered.” He could know _a_ path that would lead to Lily’s death, but he could not know _every_ path that might lead to Lily’s death, and he could not know how to avoid them.

“Exactly!” Flitwick beamed approvingly. “If you had the ability to change something in the past, as soon as you did so, the future _from that point_ would be unknown to you. It would be almost as difficult to make decisions about your choices _then_ as it is to make such decisions _now_ , since you would have one path mapped, but no _more_ than one. Cause and effect are so complex that there is no certain way of predicting how your actions in the past would change the present, and the only way to find out is to live them.”

So either he didn’t change anything for years, so that he could intervene at exactly the right moment, or he would have to accept that his knowledge of the future may be anywhere between slightly and entirely inaccurate. 

Flitwick passed him a cup of strong tea with a sympathetic smile. “Has Professor Slughorn spoken to you about your career choices yet?” 

Severus blinked at the change of topic. “He’s probably going to tell me to go work for an apothecary,” he sneered. Last time, that was exactly what Slughorn had done. The whole interview had taken three minutes, at most.

“An apothecary!” Flitwick exclaimed. “Goodness me, no. Not that there’s anything wrong with working as an apothecary, and I have no doubt you would be excellent, but with your talent for spell creation, you should be studying!”

Severus’ mouth twisted, and he took a sip of his tea. “I don’t think I’ll have the chance if I stay in Britain.” Almost everyone here had been forced to take sides in the war ahead: for the Dark Lord, against him, or his victim. 

“Then leave,” Flitwick said simply. He met Severus’ gaze seriously, setting down his cup. “I am quite serious in suggesting an apprenticeship, Mr Snape. A bright mind like yours should be put to use. You’re planning to take arithmancy next year?”

Severus nodded, silent in the face of this unexpected, unasked-for kindness.

“I’m going to write to some scholars I know who work with spell creation - and potions, it would be a shame if you had to give up one to study the other,” Flitwick told him. “I’ll tell them I’ve got a bright young man who could use a mentor, it’s not uncommon for me to ask for that sort of thing. And we’ll see if we can find a place for you to go after you graduate.”

It was a possibility he had never considered, between the Scylla and Charybdis of the two sides of the war. Was it truly possible for him to just...leave? “...I couldn’t afford it,” he said reluctantly. He couldn’t afford a pair of second-hand boots, let alone moving to another country. 

Flitwick shook his head. “An apprenticeship is paid for in labour, not coin,” he said firmly. “Food and board are covered by the master. The rest can be managed, I think, if need be.”

It didn’t solve the problem of what would happen to Lily. But it was a future he had never seen before. He had two and a half years until he graduated, almost seven until she died...surely he could work the rest out in time? 

Slowly, warily, Severus nodded. “Thank you, Professor. Could we...keep this private?”

“Of course,” Flitwick said, sympathetically. “No one will hear about it from me, you can rely on that.”

And strangely, Severus almost thought he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is going to be an exploration of a very self-centred time travel story - what happens if the protagonist doesn't _care_ about saving the world?
> 
> Please note that I don't think Snape being entirely focused on himself and Lily is a sign that he is a bad person - she is almost the only person in his entire life who has liked him and valued him, so she is absolutely the centre of his world. I don't think even _he_ could tell if there was a romantic component to that, and I don't intend to explore a romantic aspect of their relationship in this story. 
> 
> Also, Snape has literally no leverage over anything outside of himself and _maybe_ her. So. Trying to affect the war is a bit out of scope.
> 
> If you don't like the premise or execution of this fic, please hit the 'back' button rather than the 'comment' one. Thank you!


	3. 2466

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking to Lily

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Reflection on issues with the Marauders, and Severus' general vulnerability to both Slytherins and Gryffindors.

“Sev!” Lily called out, catching up to him as he started up the stairs. “Sev, what the hell, you haven’t even  _ looked _ at me in a day and a half!”

He didn’t dare look at her. Surely she would see everything, know everything - or if not everything, she would at least know that he was an imposter. How could he pretend to be the young, foolish boy who had not been estranged from her? Who had not seen her lifeless eyes stare back at him? No, if he looked at her, she would see tears or cold stone, and he didn’t know which was worse.

“Is this a Slytherin thing?” she hissed. “You  _ said _ you didn’t care what they thought.  _ You said _ that you were my friend  _ no matter what. _ You - “

“Alright!” Severus snapped, equally unable to look at her or to be silent. “It’s - I’ll tell you, but not here. Something happened.”

She drew in a sharp breath. “Sev, are you alright?” she asked in hushed tones. “Did someone do something?”

He choked on a bitter laugh. As himself, or him-he-had-been, the answer was the same. “Not here,” he repeated. “By the lake, after Runes.” He didn’t take Runes; it would give him time to work out his story.

He definitely wasn’t going to tell her the truth.

\-----

It was easier to avoid people, out on the grounds. Less people were there altogether, especially in this weather, but you could also see and hear further. Severus made it to his and Lily’s preferred meeting spot, where the lake met the rocky outcrop the castle was built on, and made a fire to warm himself as he paced.

He needed to avoid the Dark Lord’s service. For Lily, yes, but really because he could not bear enduring it again, knowing in advance how much it would cost him for so few and worthless rewards.

If the Dark Lord wished to recruit him, he did not have the power to avoid it.

Therefore, he must not draw the Dark Lord’s attention as a potentially useful recruit.

He had neither money, family, nor influence. He distinguished himself only by his skill.

Therefore, he must not appear so skilled that it made him interesting.

It would be difficult. He would have to act not only  _ as _ ignorant as his fifteen-year-old self, but  _ more _ ignorant. What skill he had already displayed could not be undone, but he would have to hide every new spell, every potions improvement. He would have to pretend spells taught in class were a challenge, instead of long-ago mastered. He would have to do so in a way that seemed natural compared to his previous skill levels, which had faded into memory. And he would have to lose duels he had the skill to win, and suffer the humiliation and pain that resulted. 

He had survived four years in the Dark Lord’s service. He could survive the battlegrounds of Hogwarts for two. 

\-----

At last, the hour passed, and Lily arrived, her robes wrapped tightly around her as she hurried through the frozen grounds. “Sorry I’m late,” she called out once she got close. “I stopped by the kitchens to get us some cocoa.” She dropped down on the log next to Severus and tossed her hood back with a dramatic shiver. “Bloody hell, Sev, it’s  _ freezing! _ We couldn’t have met indoors somewhere? It’s nice and warm in the dungeons.” 

Severus cast a warming charm on her in reply. He needed privacy, if he was going to tell her this.

Lily rolled her eyes, but pulled her thermos out of her bag and handed it to him. "Here," she said. "You look like you need it. You've been sitting out here the whole period, haven't you?"

He transfigured two mugs out of the key chains hanging from the handle, passing one to Lily and putting his wand away before pouring out the still-steaming cocoa for them both. "Most of it, yes," he admitted. "Thanks." He almost burnt his tongue on the first sip, but it helped, sweet and warming. 

"...Well, don't keep me in suspense," Lily urged, when she worked out he wasn't going to say anything else. "What happened? Was it my lot or yours? Or something else? I haven't heard any rumours, not anything."

"You wouldn't have," Severus said bitterly. 'My lot or yours' - yes, that did sum up the problem. "The only people who know are the Marauders, the Headmaster, Madam Pomfrey, and presumably Professor McGonagall by now."

Lily's eyes narrowed dangerously, and her gloved hands tightened around her mug. " _ No one _ else?" she checked. "Not even their parents? Not Professor Slughorn? Severus Snape, what the bloody hell did they do now, and why is Dumbledore covering it up?"

Severus took a breath. He hadn't told her last time, too furious at himself for falling into such an obvious trap. "They almost killed me."

" _ They WHAT?!" _

Severus rescued Lily's cocoa just in time as she jumped to her feet, eyes blazing, pacing furiously. "I am going to  _ castrate _ those pea-brained, snot-nosed  _ wankstains!" _ She whirled on Severus. "Sev, what did they  _ do? _ "

It was a good thing he had practice controlling his expressions, or he would have been wearing an embarrassingly large smile. He'd missed her so much. "I noticed them sneaking off at times, and came to believe it was because of illegal activity. I hinted to Black that I knew about it, and he...taunted me. Told me how to access their hiding place, if I dared. And I fell for it, like a fool."

"It's his fault for luring you into a dangerous situation, not yours for being lured," Lily said firmly. "What they were doing...it really could have killed you? They're just... _ playing around _ with something that dangerous?"

Severus smiled thinly. "They have invested several months, from what I can guess, in developing the necessary skills to protect themselves from this specific danger.  _ Their _ lives are not at risk. Only the lives of anyone who comes across their hiding place without having invested equal time in those very  _ specific _ skills. If I had reached their location as Black presumably intended, I would be,  _ at best _ , scarred for life. More likely, either crippled or dead."

The blunt summation made Lily go pale, and Severus realised abruptly that this was not the woman who had lived through the reality of war. Lily was only sixteen right now, and not yet familiar with violent death. 

"Lily, I'm fine," he said, softening his voice. "Sit down and have some cocoa, you look like you've seen a boggart. I'm fine. Potter spotted me on my way to their hiding place and got me out. I'm not hurt, they didn't even hex me."

"Didn't even -  _ Sev!" _ She launched herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck and spilling cocoa everywhere. "Sev, you idiot, you think that makes it better? You could've  _ died!" _

His arms wrapped around her automatically, though God knows where the instinct came from. His neck was wet. Lily was...crying? For him. She was crying for him. If he had died, then, she would have cried. She would have mourned him. His hands were clutching her robes. When did they do that? Her shampoo smelled like apples. 

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out, not knowing how to say anything else. “I - Lily, I’m sorry. I…” He took in a shuddering breath, trying to get a hold of himself. His voice was thin, yet somehow as heavy as a stone in his throat. 

Lily pulled back, looking worried. “You don’t need to say sorry,” she murmured, brushing a bit of hair out of his face. “ _ I’m _ sorry, for making this about me. Are you alright?”

Severus blinked slowly, his extra years weighing on him. “...I’m tired.” As the words fell out of his mouth, he realised how very true they were. “Everything I do is political. If I spend time with you, I’m a muggle-lover to my housemates and a sly interloper to yours. If I spend time with my housemates, my housemates think I’m sucking up to get influence, everyone else thinks I approve of bigotry, and the Marauders think I’m a Death Eater in training. If I spend time with non-Slytherins, the Slytherins think I’m a traitor and the others think it’s a trick. If I don’t spend time with anyone, I’m a creepy loner who can’t be trusted. It’s...” He trailed off, shaking his head. 

Lily took his hands in hers and squeezed them. “Well,” she said firmly, “if everything you do is political, then you may as well do whatever you want. What do you  _ want _ to do?” Her eyes were still watery and her nose was red, but her jaw was set and determined.

It was such a Gryffindor question - or at least, not a Slytherin one - that Severus hadn’t even considered looking at it in that light. But the answer was the easiest thing in the world. “I want to spend more time with you,” he replied. “Just us, or with your other friends, if they’ll put up with me.”

Lily nodded firmly. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” Her expression morphed into a scowl. “And rest assured, I’ll be doing something about those boys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's interesting, trying to settle on Lily's characterisation - it's not like we have much to go on from canon. I look forward to your comments!


	4. 2462

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A letter arrives from Norway

On Monday, a huge grey owl with piercing gold eyes alighted on the breakfast table in front of Severus and held out her foot impatiently. She was at least twice the size of most of the birds in the hall by height alone, and her wingspan had to be almost five feet. Trying to control his face, Severus untied the letter from her ankle and unfolded the parchment to read: 

_ “Dear Mr Snape, _

_ Filius tells me you’re a bright young man with a talent for innovative charms work who could use a correspondent, and given his skill with connecting students to mentors, I’m inclined to give it a try. _

_ (Apologies if my English is a little strange - it’s my fifth language, and I’m not as fluent as I could be.) _

_ If you give Jaskat something to eat and tell her ‘opperire’ (emphasis on the third syllable), she’ll wait until you’ve got a reply for me - I doubt the school owls would be particularly happy about crossing the North Sea.” _

Glad of the opportunity to stop drawing so much attention, Severus passed the owl a bit of bacon and told her, “Opperire.” Jaskat swallowed the bacon appreciatively and launched herself off the table, headed (presumably) for the Owlery. Severus looked up at the Head Table, and sure enough, Professor Flitwick was smiling at him. Who had the professor told about him?

_ “Now to introduce myself,”  _ the letter went on, “ _ and you can decide whether you’d like to exchange letters with me. I am Marte Nilsdottir, one of the masters at Dragehiet in Norway. Unless you read Latin, you probably haven’t read any of my publications, but I work specifically in spell creation and the interactions between charms and potions. My family has been loosely associated with Dragehiet for quite some time, so I did my apprenticeship there as well as joining the community once I had my mastery in charms. We all work across disciplines here, so in addition to questions on charms, spell creation, and potions, I can answer or find someone else to answer questions on arithmancy, geomancy, astronomy, transfiguration, duelling, enchantment, warding, runework, basic alchemy, and certain aspects of magical creatures - including, obviously, dragons. No herbology, though, and we’re all fairly practical around here, so none of the mystic arts.  _

_ I understand you are to do your first level exams this year; what subjects are you studying? Are there areas of interest outside those subjects you would like to discuss? What type of spells have you been working on? _

_ Regards, _

_ Mtr. M. Nilsdottir” _

Severus blinked at the letter, mind racing with all the questions it raised. What was Dragehiet? The name was familiar, vaguely, but he couldn’t place it. What connection did it have to dragons? Why were Master Nilsdottir’s publications in Latin if she was in Norway? What effects  _ did _ charms have on potions? What had Professor Flitwick said that made someone so accomplished interested in writing to  _ him? _

He didn’t have time to think about this now. He had arithmancy first thing, and he was still out of practice with the complex equations required. His questions would have to wait.

\-----

Lily hated the Hogwarts library catalogue with a passion, and Severus didn’t blame her. She was accustomed to the organisation of muggle libraries, with cards organised alphabetically by subject, then author. The Hogwarts library, as far as they could tell, was organised by a mixture of subject, language, book size, date of acquisition, author, and wherever things were last put. The catalogue was simply a large book listing all the titles they held and their location, without any sort of other organisation. Searching the library for anything you hadn’t encountered before was inevitably slow, uncertain, inconsistent, and frustrating.

Nevertheless, he and Lily convened in the library in their free period after lunch to find out what they could about the writer of the mysterious letter.

“So,” Lily said firmly, parchment and quill in hand, as Severus opened up the catalogue on its heavy wooden stand. “Our keywords are Marte Nilsdottir, Dragehiet, interactions between charms and potions, dragons, Norway...anything else?”

Severus reviewed the letter in his mind. “Interdisciplinary scholarship,” he commented. “And recent works in Latin, perhaps.” 

Lily nodded firmly and uncapped her inkpot. “Let’s see what we can find, then.”

He skimmed the catalogue, page after page, calling out potentially useful titles as he went for Lily to write down. By the end, they had a list of fifty or so, but there were a few that stood out, and that, they decided, was where they would start.

“Whatever  _ Res Dragehietis _ is, there’s a lot of it,” Severus commented. Each book in the catalogue contained five volumes, apparently, and the most recent one was ‘Res Dragehietis, Vol. 380-385’. 

Lily frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose that makes sense, since Master Nilsdottir thought we’d have heard of it. How about I pick up the latest one of those and a Latin dictionary, and you can get the one on dragon reserves and  _ European Centres of Magical Learning. _ ”

_ Dragon Reserves from Norway to New Zealand _ did, as it turned out, mention Dragehiet, which technically administered the Norwegian Dragon Reserve in the Saltfjellet mountains - except that when people talked about the dragon reserve, they thought of Dragehiet first, and the Reserve second.

_ European Centres of Magical Learning _ had far more detail - an entire chapter on Dragehiet. It was, apparently, a multidisciplinary research and teaching institution that predated Hogwarts, one of the most prestigious such institutions the world.

“Sev,  _ look _ at this!” Lily exclaimed, pointing at the list of famous masters who had taught at Dragehiet, their time there, and their specialties. “How have we never heard of this place?” At least one in four was recognisable as someone they’d learned or read about, and ‘multidisciplinary’ was understating it. 

_ ‘Dragehiet’s population is generally no more than fifty, although guests are accepted on a seasonal basis,’ _ Severus read silently. _ ‘There are between ten and fifteen masters at any time, each with one to four apprentice and journeyman students.’ _

Professor Flitwick thought he would be accepted  _ there? _ An elite, highly selective academy full of extraordinary scholars and inventors from all over Europe?

Lily had moved on to the  _ Res Dragehietis _ , which they now knew was the semi-annual publication of the scholars at Dragehiet. Sure enough, over the last five volumes, Master Nilsdottir’s name made regular appearances, and Lily was already paging through the Latin dictionary to work out the titles of her publications.

Severus’ mouth was dry, and he stood up abruptly. “I’m just… bathroom,” he muttered, excusing himself. If Lily replied, he didn’t notice.

\-----

It took him several drafts to write his reply to Master Nilsdottir’s letter, most of them ruined by inkblots and crossings-out. The parchment was scraped thin and soft from erasing it by the time he was satisfied, but he did manage to bring something to Jaskat by the end of the day. “Take this home, please,” he told her, attaching the folded letter to her leg as securely as he could. 

He held out his arm, and she stepped on, gripping his forearm surprisingly gently, given her size. She was heavy, but he managed to help launch her into the air, the backdraft from her wings ruffling his hair. “Safe flight,” he called out, thinking of the icy winds she would have to navigate between here and the Saltfjellet mountains. Despite her wingspan, she swooped nimbly through the window normally used by much smaller owls, leaving only a few dropped feathers behind.

_ “Dear Master Nilsdottir,” _ he had written.

_ “My sincerest thanks for your letter; I am honoured that Professor Flitwick would recommend me so warmly to a scholar of your calibre.  _

_ I am currently studying the seven Hogwarts compulsory subjects (Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and History of Magic), as well as Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures. Next year, I intend to drop History of Magic, and possibly Astronomy, but otherwise continue my current course of study. _

_ My primary areas of interest have been potions and what is here called ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts’, particularly defense against other wizards. I would be very interested to hear about your work on the interactions of charms and potions, as I am currently unable to read those publications of yours that are in the Hogwarts library. Do you believe it is worthwhile for my future studies for me to study Latin? _

_ Professor Flitwick is aware that I am currently working on variants on levitation charms, specifically on modifications to ‘mobilicorpus’. One of my more successful experiments in the past was in creating a charm that masks the sound within an area with a buzzing noise for anyone who is outside the casting area that attempts to listen. _

_ I hope that Jaskat weathered the journey well; thank you for letting her wait for a reply. _

_ With sincerest respects, _

_ Severus Snape” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have done SO MUCH worldbuilding for Dragehiet already, you have no idea. Please ask questions, because Snape won't get to actually go there until he graduates!


	5. 2459

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rumour has it the Marauders got a comeuppance

Lily had somehow persuaded her other friends to let him join their table in the study room next to the library on a semi-regular basis. Alice Fawley and Marlene McKinnon from Gryffindor, Julie Taylor from Hufflepuff, and Diane Martin from Ravenclaw now tolerated his presence with polite nods, though Severus was uninclined to test that tolerance when Lily wasn’t there. When he looked into the study room on Thursday after dinner, the group was buzzing.

“ - really duel  _ James Potter _ in the Gryffindor common room?” Diane was saying as he came in. Severus paused, lingering by the door where he could listen in without interrupting.

“Actually,” Alice said smugly, “ _ Frank _ and I duelled Potter  _ and Black. _ And won.”

Lily leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin. “They didn’t just win, they  _ flattened them _ ,” she told them. “You know Frank’s been working on his wordless disarming - he’s so bloody  _ fast _ now.”

“Mmhmm,” Alice agreed, biting her lip, her cheeks flushed. “We didn’t have long to strategise, he just asked me to cover him and wham! Black’s wand was out of his hand before he could cast  _ anything _ , then he got Potter’s while I silenced them both.” 

“I got there late,” Marlene said, making a face. “Just after Alice cast - I thought Black was going to try to punch Frank in the face! But he just - “ She started laughing. “Bloody hell, he just - looked at them like puppies that pissed on the carpet, you know? And then did a body bind on Black when he moved, and just...waited?”

“God, I can imagine,” Julie put in, her eyes sparkling. “Those two have needed a comeuppance for ages. Did they yield?”

Lily nodded smugly. “They yielded.  _ God, _ it was good.  _ Literally _ just disarm and silencing charms, like they weren’t even  _ worth _ a proper hex. It was  _ gorgeous _ .”

Diane looked over at Alice and raised her eyebrows. “Was it just as good close up?” she teased.

“Oh, she stole Frank right after for a proper snog,” Marlene put in. “From the look on his face when I next saw him, he was  _ very _ well appreciated.”

Severus slipped out of the room as the conversation turned to Frank Longbottom’s kissing skills, his mind reeling. This hadn’t happened before, surely? He would have known. He would have heard. So what had changed?

\------

Through careful investigation, Severus eventually managed to piece together the sequence of events. Collecting gossip wasn’t his specialty, but he was a competent eavesdropper, and the duel was big news.

At the end of classes that day, McGonagall had sent Evelyn Smith to get Potter and Black and send them up to the headmaster’s office.

Patrick Thorne swore he’d heard the teachers talking at dinner about Lord Potter visiting.

Theodolphus Burke and Octavia Flint had seen Black pacing back and forth at the bottom of the headmaster’s stairs, scowling. 

Silas Selwyn had shown up to the Hospital Wing because he’d run into Black and Potter on the route between the headmaster’s office and Gryffindor Tower, and Black had hexed him with something he didn’t know how to undo. (The specific hex changed with every telling.)

The card-playing nuns that shared a corridor with the Fat Lady were telling Sir Leopold near the Dark Tower how Potter and Black had stormed into the Gryffindor common room and started yelling at Lily Evans for snitching before the portrait even closed behind them.

But after that, everyone told the same sequence of events: Frank Longbottom had interfered, saying that  _ he _ had written to Lord Potter, because their behaviour was a disgrace to Gryffindor House. 

\-----

Severus managed to corner Lily in the library when she went looking for a book on Eisinga’s planetarium, pulling her into a more deserted section of shelving. “Lily,” he hissed, “what did you  _ do?” _

Thankfully, she didn’t try to dodge the question. “It was mostly Alice,” she confessed. “I needed to vent about the toerags after what you told me last week, and when I was complaining about all the things they’ve done over the years - not just to you, in general - she got really angry in that thoughtful, quiet way she does? And then she got out some parchment and asked a bunch of questions, and I  _ think _ she spent the weekend making a list of as many of their 'pranks' as she could verify. She was fuming when Potter tried to flirt with me on Monday."

Severus frowned. He knew very little of Alice Fawley, except that she was friends with Lily, would marry Frank Longbottom, became an Auror and one of the Order of the Phoenix, and had been pregnant at the same time Lily was. It wasn't much to base a judgement of her character on. "Why intervene now?" he asked. "And why did Longbottom get involved?"

Lily half-shrugged, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. "Alice and Frank...they're not like the rest of us, they grew up with all the pureblood kids. Potter's dad is Frank's godfather, apparently, which is why he sent the letter. And you know the Marauders never target  _ them _ unless it's something  _ actually _ light-hearted and funny."

Severus sneered. "You think Longbottom excused Potter's 'antics' because he didn't see the harm?"

"I think his mental image of Potter is based on what he was like as a kid, and he didn't realise how much Potter had escalated," Lily said, making a face. "I know, it's not good enough, but I think Alice's list was a bit of a wake-up call, and they both seem genuinely angry and ashamed. Frank even said as much, before the fight."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Severus muttered bitterly.

Lily nodded, wrapping him in a quick hug before he could object. "I know, and I don't blame you," she said. "But let Gryffindors police Gryffindors for a bit? Maybe it'll help."

Severus looked at her searchingly for a moment, then, reluctantly, nodded. "We'll see."

\-----

  
He wasn’t about to test the situation; he kept his head down and out of the line of fire. But he  _ did _ notice that disarming and silencing charms became a lot more common among the Gryffindors over the next few days. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you tired of female characters in HP being reduced to 'motherhood'? I am. 
> 
> Has anyone figured out the chapter titles yet?


	6. 2454

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaskat returns with another letter

The next Tuesday, in the midst of everyone’s Valentine’s Day preparations, Jaskat returned. She found Severus unerringly in the way owls always did, and politely did her best not to squash everyone’s breakfast as she landed. Uncomfortably aware of the curious eyes on him, Severus took the letter with thanks and a command to wait as he had last time, and tucked it away out of sight to be read later. 

_ Dear Mr Snape, _

_ It sounds like you’ve got a full course load, though Hogwarts’ division of subjects has always been a bit eccentric. The idea of a curriculum based on ‘care of’ magical creatures rather than ‘defence against’ or ‘uses of’ seems rather impractical, but then again, you can’t exactly show the high-risk ones to teenagers. I’ve never understood the English category of ‘Dark Arts’ - it seems to be highly subjective, no matter how many treatises are written about it. Do you also study defense against arts which are  _ _ not _ _ dark? A stunning spell is hardly dark magic, but it’s certainly inconvenient when you’re in the middle of something. _

_ Latin is the language of international scholarship, and if you’re ever planning to travel, it’s extremely useful. Plenty of magicians can at least write in it, whether or not they speak any other language except their native one. And of course, the older the text, the more likely it’s written in Latin rather than a vernacular language. So when you’re able to spare the time, learning it is probably worth the effort. I’d recommend learning resources, but I learned it with Danish as my base language, which won’t help you much.  _

_ Are you familiar with Pietrovich’s work on the minimum viable potion? It’s a useful foundation to begin considering the transformation effects during brewing, and that really is a key concept for understanding charmed potions. Van der Mersch’s study on elemental influences is also particularly useful. I assume you’re at least somewhat aware of the role of cauldron and stirring rod materials in potion effects? If you are inclined to experiment with charmed potions yourself (which I don’t recommend until you’ve read more on the topic), I recommend beginning with completed potions, as those are the least volatile, and doing so in a well-ventilated area. _

_ I’m impressed that you’ve already created charms yourself - that’s quite an accomplishment! Do you begin with language or gesture? How do you plan out the spell effects? Have you covered Nicomedes’ formula in your arithmancy classes yet? Your sound-masking charm sounds useful, although fairly noticeable for an anti-eavesdropping effect. Have you experimented with different masking noises?  _

_ Please feel free to keep Jaskat with you for a few days if you need time to answer this. We have enough owls here that I won’t be stuck without her.  _

_ I look forward to hearing from you, _

_ M. Nilsdottir _

The letter was an excellent distraction from his classes over the next few days. Despite the challenges of catching up to a somewhat-forgotten fifth-year curriculum, it was immensely tedious to constantly censor so as not to appear worth cultivating. Nevertheless, the tedium was preferable to the alternative, so he kept his commentary to his notes, and when the class got caught up in something he had long since mastered, he occupied his thoughts with the letter from Master Nilsdottir.

Given the demand for owls to deliver cards, sweets, and gifts in general, Severus didn’t even try to get near the Owlery on Wednesday or Thursday. Jaskat was obviously very well trained, because she was still there when Severus finally brought her a reply on Friday evening. He could have taken longer, to do more of the reading Master Nilsdottir suggested, but he didn’t want to keep her owl for so long. He was fairly certain he would have another chance to send her questions, if things continued as it seemed they would. His preliminary thoughts would suffice, this time.

_ Dear Master Nilsdottir, _

_ How are subjects divided in other places? I agree that ‘Defense against the Dark Arts’ is a very imprecise subject name, and appears to exclude useful topics. In practice, it covers knowledge of and defences against both spells (including stunning spells), and creatures (such as boggarts, grindylows, trolls, etcetera). ‘Care of Magical Creatures’ is concerned with those creatures that are possible to interact with safely, ranging from bowtruckles to hippogriffs.  _

_ Thank you for the advice about studying Latin. I will do my best to fit it into my schedule. I also appreciate the other reading recommendations you gave me. I was familiar with Van der Mersch already, thanks to an essay I wrote on why pewter cauldrons are preferred for new brewers, but I had not read Pietrovich. How do elemental influences connect to charmed potions? Is it because those elemental influences operate on the metaphysical nature of the potion, rather than its physical ingredients, as charms presumably do? _

_ I have found a translated copy of some of Pietrovich’s work in a magical theory compendium, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard him mentioned before. The difference between, say, a bezoar, a cup of tea with honey and lemon, and a ‘potion’ is something I had never considered before, but it bears serious thought. If I understand correctly, Pietrovich’s argument is that the intent of the brewer is the deciding factor, rather than the ingredients or the preparation process, and that the same process, followed by a muggle or squib, would fail to produce a successful potion. Has this been borne out by other scholars? _

_ Regarding spell creation, I begin with language, plotting out spell effects based on an existing spell. Nicomedes’ formula is in the sixth-year curriculum, although it has been mentioned. I haven’t tried out different masking noises, but you’re right that it would make the sound-masking spell more discreet. Do you have any suggestions? _

_ Regards, _

_ S. Snape _

He had made a copy of his reply on the back of Master Nilsdottir’s letter, so he would remember what he had said, and on his way back from the Owlery, he tucked it into a hiding place he had found behind a wall hanging on the second floor. It was little more than a niche in the wall, but it was big enough for a stack of letters, and there was no reason for anyone else to look. Here, where he was not under scrutiny, he could afford to use the sort of warding spells he could not in his dormitory, enough to be truly confident the letters would not go missing. An imperfect hiding place, but given his constraints, it would do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snape's language is quite sophisticated in his letters, compared to how you might expect a fifteen year old to speak. There are two factors here: first, he is mentally twenty-two; second, his ability to 'pass' among upper class purebloods has been a significant factor in his safety for many years. When talking to Lily, you'll see that he's a bit more casual


	7. 2449

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus goes job hunting in Hogsmeade

Severus was fond of Hogsmeade weekends; he was not fond of Hogsmeade itself. With his spending money a bare ten pounds each school year (saved up by his mother out of the grocery money; given to him five pounds at a time at the beginning of term and at the winter holidays), the village held few charms. But with the majority of the student body off the grounds, Hogsmeade Sundays were an oasis of peace and quiet each month, and he looked forward to them as eagerly as anyone else.

This Sunday, however, he was not spending in the castle. He had a task to undertake.

At nine am on a frosty morning, the walk to Hogsmeade required several warming charms, and few other students were in the village when Severus arrived. It was those students that he intended to investigate.

The shops that attracted student interest on Hogsmeade Sundays (Honeydukes, Zonkos, the Three Broomsticks, Scrivenshafts, Spintwitches, Madam Puddifoots, and so on) generally found themselves in need of an additional assistant to manage the crowds - but only for that one day a month. How convenient, then, that the student body _ also _ included people who were eager to earn some extra funds by working in a shop - but were only available for one day a month.

In his previous life (as he was increasingly thinking of it), he had begun earning money shortly before his OWLs exam by selling notes, potions tutoring, and later, potions supply. He could not afford to appear so competent, but money opened too many doors for him not to seek it out. Books, clothes, bus fares, potions supplies...he was not going to do without them to avoid notice.

So today he was scouting. Who worked in Hogsmeade that would graduate this year? Who was a sixth year that might decide they needed more time to study? Who might be starting to resent the loss of free time?

In Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, he struck gold. Careful monitoring showed that no assistant was present at all. He took a moment to tidy himself up, then put on his most polite, ‘respectable young man’ face, and stepped into the shop.

The owner (the eponymous Mr Scrivenshaft) was sharpening one of the tester quills when he came in, and looked up with a smile. “Good morning, young man!”

“Good morning,” Severus replied politely, wiping his boots on the mat. “It’s lovely and warm in here.” Which it truly was. If he stayed here long, he’d have to take his cloak off, and he was already removing his scarf and gloves so he didn’t overheat. 

“Well, a warm shop keeps customers browsing, doesn’t it?” Mr Scrivenshaft said with a wink, putting down the quill and tucking the penknife away. “What brings you here today? Or are you just having a look around?”

Severus gave a rather blatant admiring look at some of the decorative ink pots, then turned his attention to the paper stock behind the central counter. “I’m saving up for my mum’s birthday, so it’s just some paper today, I’m afraid,” he said. “A sickle's worth of the cheapest you have.”

Mr Scrivenshaft nodded, and pulled the stack of paper out of its cubby in the back wall. “I don’t suppose you’re thinking of getting her a quill case?” he joked as he counted out the sheets.

Severus smiled back. “If I could afford it, maybe,” he said. (Absolutely not - even if his mother’s birthday  _ was _ coming up, he would never get her an expensive, obviously wizarding gift.) “But as it is, it’ll probably be sweets. I don’t suppose you know of any work going around?”

Mr Scrivenshaft looked him over thoughtfully as he rolled the paper up into a scroll and wrapped it in waxed paper, tying the bundle closed with string. “Here you are, lad,” he said. “I don’t suppose you know how to mend a quill nib? The proper way, with a penknife.”

Severus placed his two sickles on the counter and nodded. “I can show you if you like, sir,” he offered. “On one of the testers?”

“Put that in your bag and pick a quill that needs mending while I put this away,” Mr Scrivenshaft said, taking the money and moving to the cash register. “I’ll bring you a knife in a moment.”

Severus knew well enough that picking the quill was its own test. Which of them  _ needed _ mending? It was the beginning of the day, so they would have seen little use, and Mr Scrivenshaft had obviously been working on them to pass the morning. Careful inspection revealed that one of the crow-feather quills was worn down on the left side of the nib and needed to be trimmed.

By the time he made his choice, Mr Scrivenshaft was watching him, and he proffered the penknife handle first. “Just use the board with the test parchment to cut it on,” he said, and Severus nodded with a quiet ‘thank you’.

He felt as much tension as if he were in an exam room, but ingredient preparation had long since trained his hand and eye for precise knife work, and it took less than a minute to have the nib neat and symmetrical once more.

He offered it to Mr Scrivenshaft, who took the quill and examined it closely. “Not bad,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, lad: my usual boy took the day off to spend with his girlfriend. If you’ll fill in for him, I’ll pay you the same rates - a galleon for the day. Now until five, with half an hour for lunch. Fair?”

“Fair,” Severus agreed. That was five pounds or so in muggle money - essentially six months' funds earned in a day for him, and a fair day's wage for anyone else. “Thank you, sir.”

Scrivenshaft nodded and held out his hand to shake. “What’s your name, lad?”

Severus shook. “Severus Snape, sir,” he said. “Where should I put my things?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent WAY too much time trying to figure out what Sev would get paid. I couldn't find entry-level rates for 1975, but I found average weekly wages for 1970, so then I had to convert that into a daily quantity and try to guess how much less a teenager working an entry-level retail job would get. I ALSO had to figure out what the hell I was going to do with the historical exchange rate of pounds to galleons. In the end, for simplicity's sake, I've stuck with the five pounds to a galleon conversion rate I generally use, but inflation means that the purchasing power of a single galleon was a lot higher in 1975 than it was in 1995.
> 
> Hopefully you enjoyed Severus' foray into retail! There'll be more of it later.


	8. 2440

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus reflects.

As Severus turned down the next aisle of shelves, he caught sight of the full moon through the narrow library windows and flinched. 

It was a deeply ingrained aversion by now, though he had worked to counter it. He no longer recoiled from moonlight, and a gibbous moon he could bear, but the sight of the full moon still made him tense with remembered terror. Terror that, he realised, was far closer to him now than it had been the last time he had seen a full moon. 

Six weeks ago.

Six years from now.

Eighty months. 

Almost two and a half thousand days. He would need parchment and quill to calculate it more precisely. 

However you measured it, the time was both indulgently long and terrifyingly brief. Six years, perhaps, to savour Lily's company. A mere half decade, perhaps, until their time ran out.

Or perhaps it would be sooner. Perhaps he would be killed, or she would, far earlier than before. Even if they were, he would not regret his choice.

How could he regret anything which gave him even a few more days like the last four weeks had been? Days of someone to share his correspondence with, to argue about his homework with, to mock Professor Slughorn with. Days of Lily, vibrant and alive and  _ not hating him _ . No price would have been too high.

And now he had six and a half years to delight in it. Perhaps more. Perhaps less. Perhaps, when he reached that Halloween again, Time would reclaim the future he had offered, and his own time would run out. It hardly mattered. There was so much else to survive, between now and then. And so much else to enjoy. 

_ \- END PART ONE -  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I realise before I wrote this chapter that the fic would be divided into parts? Nope!
> 
> We'll be doing a bit of a time skip (a few months, more or less) with the next chapter, and I don't have it written, so despite the short length of this one, I can't tell you how long the next chapter will take. Thank you all for your comments, and I hope you're enjoying the story!


	9. 2332

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the day that was once the worst day of Severus' life, he goes to the library instead.

It was strange, Severus thought grimly, as Professor Flitwick handed out the question papers and approved anti-cheating quills, that his OWL exams seemed no easier now than the last time he had taken them. Six years had worn away his memory of the questions, and he’d lost the knack of managing his time so he wasn’t caught with answers half-finished.

It had been differently difficult, this time. Memorising the ‘correct’ answers when he had learned more effective solutions. Sharing carefully censored notes with Lily’s Gryffindor friends. Seeing Black get silenced four or five times a week, when one of Lily’s friends heard him say something obnoxious. (Potter only slightly less frequently.) Returning to his dorm each night and casting deliberately mediocre detection charms to check whether any traps had been placed despite his deliberately mediocre wards. Occasionally enduring traps that he had not detected, and presenting himself to the Hospital Wing rather than reveal his ability to treat the results. Biting his tongue on comments in class. Translating his questions into Latin, dictionary and grammar by his elbow, to send them to Master Nilsdatter. 

“You may begin,” Professor Flitwick announced, and Severus turned over the question paper.

_ DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS - ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL _

_ Question 1: Describe the casting method, appearance, and effects of one of the following. List three ways to defend against it, and one way to treat its effects… _

Two hours later, Severus’ hand was sore and ink-stained, but he could put his quill down with confidence that he had answered well. 

Professor Flitwick summoned their rolls of parchment to the front, then dismissed them - and Severus, keeping a careful eye on the Marauders, collected his bag and left in the direction of the library.

Everyone else was headed outside to enjoy the summer sun on the last day of their exams. The wind coming off the lake would be pleasantly cool, and there were plenty of trees and bushes to offer shade. But Severus remembered all too well what had happened the last time he had lived this day, and he saw no reason to tempt fate. He didn’t need to re-do that confrontation to prove to himself he had changed. The summer sun could wait.

\-----

Madam Pince ruled her domain with a stern voice and an iron will. If he was safe from harassment anywhere in the school, it was here, although he had minimal privacy. For now, that didn’t matter, particularly as almost no one else was there. He took a spot at one of the study tables in a corner and emptied out his bag (or most of it).

Over the past month, Severus had been collecting paper and parchment that others had thrown away, before it could be disposed of by the house elves. The richer students were profligate, discarding parchment after two or three uses - Severus never did so unless he had scraped it clean so many times it was translucent. Paper was often crumpled up and tossed away when it was half blank, and last week he had found a stack of empty journals thrown out by a Ravenclaw who had too many of them to use. They were a true prize, and he had plans for them. But first, the messy work.

Each piece of parchment, Severus laid flat on the desk and cleaned with the parchment-scraping charm, setting aside those ones that scraped too thin for mending or trimming. The paper had all been flattened under a weight, and now he removed the ink with a charm he would need to be  _ very _ careful to never point at a book. “Tergeo maxima,” he murmured, over and over again, siphoning the ink into empty potions vials. It was a horrible mix of quality and consistency, but he kept the colours separate, and he didn’t need high quality to get a benefit out of saving it. 

After the better part of an hour, his paper and parchment were clean, or close enough to it. Most of it, he would save for use next term (parchment didn’t come cheap, after all), but it also gave him supplies for experimentation. Sealing the ink vials carefully, he packed it all back into his satchel and took out his packet of letters from Master Nilsdatter, and the dictionary and grammar he had been borrowing for most of the term. Now for the more challenging part.

Opening one of his precious blank books on the table, he placed the grammar next to it, open to the conjugation tables. “Geminio verbum,” he said, directing the charm to the blank pages, and watched with satisfaction as a copy of the conjugation tables appeared. Yet copying page by page would be tedious for a whole book. He turned to the next page of the grammar and tried again. “Geminio verbum continuo!”

A blue light shone from his wand as he held the spell, watching the pages turn in sync, the blank book filling with text. He managed to maintain the spell for a full fifty pages before the strain grew too much and he had to end it. 

“Damn,” he muttered. There went his plans of copying the dictionary as well. He’d do the rest of the grammar, since he’d started it and it would come in handy, but he’d have to find another dictionary somewhere for the summer. At least there were likely to be second hand ones around, even if they didn’t have technical magical vocabulary. Muggles didn’t  _ speak _ Latin, but expensive public schools and universities still taught them to read it. He’d work it out.

By the time he finished copying the grammar, he could feel a definite magical strain, so copying Master Nilsdatter’s letters would have to wait until he’d had a bit of a break. He took out a clean sheet of paper and good ink, and wrote,

_ “Severus Snape Magistrae Nilsdatteri salutem dicit. _

_ “[I have finished my examinations, and I believe I performed well. Thank you for waiting until I was able to reply. I hope the school’s owl arrived safely. Unfortunately, I cannot send or receive owls’ messages during the summer. I hope that you will write to me in September. I will have practiced Latin.]” _

That much was as much as he felt like trying to translate, particularly given how stilted his sentences were because of his limited knowledge. In English, he added,

_ “I have been immensely grateful for your letters this year, for your kindness in writing to me, and for your willingness to share your expertise. You have given me much food for thought, and even should you end our correspondence now, I am sure I will benefit for a long time to come. Thank you once again, and I hope you will give me an opportunity to learn from you further when school resumes. _

_ Yours sincerely, _

_ Severus Snape” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And part 2 begins!
> 
> For the curious, the beginning of the letter reads 'Severus Snape to Master Nilsdatter sends greetings' (more or less). It's a standard way to start letters in Latin. You may be wondering why Snape's name doesn't change in Latin, but Master Nilsdatter's does. Snape's name does change! It's just that it doesn't change in the nominative case, which is how it appears here. A similar greeting going the other way would read 'Magistra Nilsdatter Severo Snapei salutem dicit'.
> 
> Eagle-eyed readers may also notice that I have changed 'Nilsdottir' to 'Nilsdatter'. This is because one of my readers pointed out that 'Nilsdottir' sounds Icelandic, not Norwegian. Did I curse myself with way too much language and cultural research in this fic? Yes.


	10. 2332.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily retrieves Severus from the library and they visit the owlery, only to be found there by Evan Rosier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: Allusions to Snape’s abusive father. Harassment by another Slytherin, who is in-universe racist. To skip that section, jump from ‘The eagle owl had just launched himself’ to ‘ “Sorry,” he said quietly.” ‘. I’ll summarise that bit in the end notes. 

Eventually, Lily tracked him down. "For god's sake, Sev, we've just finished our exams and you're  _ still _ in the library? Come on, I'm taking you to get some fresh air."

"I like the library," Severus pointed out, but he did start packing up his things. Lily would get her way sooner or later.

"Variety is the spice of life," she quoted, grabbing his library books to carry them to the front desk. "Come  _ on _ , Sev, we've got less than a week before we have to go home, let's enjoy it."

One corner of Severus' lips quilted with a hint of a fond smile. "I have to send a letter first," he warned.

Lily beamed at him. "The owlery first, then," she agreed. "To Master Nilsdatter?"

Severus nodded as he stood, hanging his satchel over one shoulder. "I need to tell her not to write me in the summer," he explained. "Can you imagine my father if Jaskat showed up at Spinners End?"

Lily made a face. "You'll be alright this summer, won't you?" she asked quietly, watching him carefully. "If you get  _ really _ in trouble, you can come to me, and Tuney can go suck an egg. Mum and Dad won't mind."

"I'll be fine," Severus reassured her. "I don't plan on spending my days at home. I'm going to see if I can get a summer job in Diagon Alley." After two additional weekends filling in at Mr Scrivenshaft's, he had a job lined up for next term, but ten days a year at a galleon a day was hardly a steady income.

"How are you going to get there?" Lily asked, pulling her hair over her shoulder and starting to plat it as they walked. "We can't apparate yet, and no-one has a floo in  _ Cokeworth _ . And it takes hours on the train."

"The Knight Bus is faster," Severus said. But more expensive. It was  _ immensely _ irritating that he faced a summer of paying for the bus when he was perfectly capable of apparition, but without a license, it would attract attention and trouble. So it was three sickles a day to get there, and three sickles a day to get home, and if he was earning a galleon a day, a third of his pay down the drain. 

Lily sighed. “Do you think I should get a summer job too?”

“No,” Severus said immediately. “Spend time with your family while you can.” Lily’s parents were genuinely nice people, and he was fairly sure they had both passed away before he went back in time. He wasn’t sure exactly when, but it would still be too soon for her to lose them. When his own father died, he wouldn’t miss him.

They were still talking about summer plans when they arrived at the owlery, and Lily rang the bell for a school owl while Severus got the letter out of his bag. And of course, the owl that came down was one of the smallest in the owlery.

“I’m not giving this to you, Pippin,” Severus informed him. “It’s a long-distance trip, overseas. You’d hate it.”

Pippin, barely twenty centimetres tall, chirruped insistently and pecked at the folded paper. 

“ _ No, _ Pippin.”

Pippin sidled along the perch to be closer to Lily and cheeped at her instead. She sighed. “We’re going to have to give him a letter, aren’t we?”

Severus rolled his eyes. Everyone knew what Pippin was like. He was the best for in-school messages, always eager to carry them, and his long legs were surprisingly strong. But he just wasn’t built for long-distance trips or heavy packages, and there was no way to convince him of that when he wanted to carry a letter. “I’m not giving him mine.”

Lily laughed, reaching out to scritch Pippin’s head feathers. “I’ll just have to give you a message of my own then, hmm?” Pippin’s head tilted into her scratching, and his big gold eyes nearly closed with pleasure. “Grab me one of the little pouches, Sev?”

There was a covered basket of cloth pouches and ties next to the main letter-sending perch, and Severus picked out a small one while Lily searched her pockets for something she could send. “Oh, here we go,” she said, pulling out a pebble shaped vaguely like a crescent moon. “I picked it up by the lake earlier.” She balanced it on the perch, drew her wand, and carefully transfigured it into lapis lazuli. “There,” she said. “It won’t last, but Diane will like that.”

Severus passed her the pouch, reflecting that the Ravenclaw probably would, and Lily dropped the stone in before tying it to Pippin’s leg. “Take it to Diane Martin, please,” she instructed, and Pippin peeped loudly, then took off.

“He’s such a nuisance,” she said fondly, shaking her head. “Let’s try again. Arcturus!” She rang the bell, more insistently this time.

Arcturus, the largest bird in the owlery, swooped down to perch in front of them, the backdraft from his wings blowing Severus’ hair back. At three times Pippin’s height and almost ten times the weight, Arcturus was nearly as big as Jaskat, and was almost exclusively used for sending heavy packages.

Severus bowed slightly. “I have a letter for Master Marte Nilsdatter, in Norway,” he explained, holding it out. “May I?” Arcturus considered him, then offered one feathered foot, and Severus tied the letter on. “Thank you.”

The eagle owl had just launched himself when Severus heard footsteps behind him, followed by the sneering voice of Evan Rosier: 

“You realise you’re supposed to have your assignations in the  _ Astronomy _ Tower, Snape?” 

He and Lily turned, himself wearily, Lily angrily.

“Then again, you obviously don’t mind getting covered in filth, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Severus gritted his teeth.

“You take that back!” Lily demanded, going for her wand.

“That won’t help,” Severus muttered, getting his own wand out of his robes.

Rosier scoffed. “Hiding behind your pet mudblood? I don’t know why I’m surprised. You’re pathetic.  _ Purgos Vesicae! _ ”

Severus dodged left, Lily to the right, the sickly yellow light of the incontinence jinx passing harmlessly between them.

“Vespis oppugno!” Lily snapped, and a stream of wasps emerged from her wand, swarming around Rosier.

“Vespis exumai!” Rosier yelped, knocking back the swarm, then “Evanesco vespis!”

The wasps cleared, but Rosier was clearly worse for wear, and there was a pause as all three of them waited to see if anyone would back down. 

Rosier lost patience first. “Levicorpus!”

Severus stepped between him and Lily a moment too late, and he heard her yelp as he spat out a Conjunctivitus Curse so Rosier at least couldn’t see the effect of his spell. 

“I’m closing my eyes, Lily,” he told her before he turned around. There was no counterspell for the Conjunctivitis Curse, only a potion, and he could hear Rosier swearing behind him. “Molliare.” The stone floor beneath them cushioned, he released Lily, eyes still closed, and winced when he heard her land. “Sorry.”

A spell slammed into the back of his knees - they cracked,  _ twisted _ , and settled, facing backwards and aching. “You’ll have to do better than spells from last year’s textbook to beat me, Snape,” Rosier spat. 

Lily must have dropped her wand when Rosier got her, and right now it was their saving grace. “Please don’t say anything,” Severus whispered, his face tight with pain. “If he thinks he’s won, he’ll leave.”

She looked furious, but kept her mouth shut as she got to her feet and brushed herself off, offering Severus an arm to lean on. 

“You’ve made your point,” Severus gritted out. (He’d endured worse than this before, but Rosier didn’t know that.) “Are you done?”

Rosier scoffed. “You’re a worthless, traitorous mudsucker, Snape, and someday you’re going to choke on it.” He turned, feeling his way along the wall as he left, and Severus counted to fifty before letting his shoulders slump.

“Sorry,” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t have had to hear that.”

“ _ You _ shouldn’t have had to hear that,” Lily hissed, scooping up his bag and hanging it over her shoulder. “Are you going to let me carry you to the hospital wing?”

Severus considered his knees and nodded. “Keep me upright?” he asked. He hated being levitated.

Lily rolled her eyes, but nodded. “I can’t believe you just let him get away with that,” she muttered, as his feet lifted off the ground. She was kind enough to walk beside him almost casually as they went, letting him at least pretend that he hadn’t been beaten by a sixteen year old he could have disarmed and disabled in seconds if he’d used his true skill.

“I have to live with him,” Severus pointed out to her. “If he wins, he’s satisfied, and he stops. If  _ I _ win, I’m a threat, and next time he’ll hit harder.”

Unsurprisingly, Lily didn’t like that reasoning much. “Is that why you were pretending you couldn’t beat him?” she asked. “Do you really think you can’t handle him? You could almost beat Black  _ and _ Potter.”

“If he can’t beat me with fair play, he’ll do something else, and we share a dorm,” Severus replied with a wry smile. “Thank you for your confidence in me, but I’d rather be overlooked. Are you alright?”

“ _ I’m _ fine,” Lily said grumpily. “I hear that shit all the time.  _ You’re _ the one who got his knees reversed.”

“They’ll be fixed soon enough,” Severus told her. “If you’re fine, I’m fine too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of confrontation with Rosier: Evan Rosier shows up, insults Snape and Lily in a racist sort of way, calls Lily a mudblood, then casts an incontinence jinx (which doesn’t hit either of them). Lily conjures wasps to attack Rosier, and Rosier vanishes them. Rosier casts Levicorpus at Lily, Snape uses the conjunctivitis curse to temporarily blind Rosier, then closes his eyes while he helps Lily down. Rosier gets Snape from behind with a knee-reversal hex, and mocks him for relying on fourth-year spells. Snape secretly begs Lily not to retaliate, and Rosier insults Snape again, in a threatening and racist way, before leaving.
> 
> \------
> 
> The confrontation with Rosier is really important to me, because one thing canon does not do is give us examples of the sort of Slytherins Lily, Snape, and the Marauders were encountering in the school environment. As part of the motivation for Snape's actions is managing the threat of other Slytherins, I felt I needed to make that threat more real. We'll come back to it, but probably not for a while. 
> 
> On another note, I hate coming up with spell incantations, and I keep doing it to myself. Is there a library of decent fan-made spells somewhere?
> 
> Owl notes: Jaskat is a Great Grey Owl, one of the largest owl species. She is also a mature female, and therefore a fairly large example of her species. Arcturus is a Eurasian Eagle Owl, also one of the largest owl species, but he is a smaller male, so not quite as big. Pippin, on the other hand, is a Little Owl, which are tiny by comparison.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I look forward to your comments!


	11. 2326

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus packs his belongings for the trip home

The Hogwarts Express was leaving tomorrow morning, and Severus was packing his trunk. It being mid-morning, he had the dorm to himself - the others usually did their packing in the evening, except for Bulstrode, who simply tossed his things in shortly before departure and trusted the enchantments on his trunk to make them fit and keep them undamaged. Severus’ trunk had only a featherlight charm that he reapplied each year to make it easier to handle on the trip.

After five years (and more in his memory), he had the process refined to high efficiency. First into the trunk was his cauldron, as the bulkiest and most awkwardly-shaped item. Well cleaned and dried, it was lined with his winter cloak, which he then folded and wrapped around his more rigid and fragile school supplies. His brass scales went at the bottom, the weights poured into one of his herbology gloves to keep them together. Then, in another fold of his cloak, his collapsible telescope. His inkpots, cushioned inside his winter gloves, and his potions vials, rolled up into a bundle in his dark grey scarf. (A present from Lily, as were his gloves. Her Christmas present to him was almost always something warm - gloves, a scarf, socks.) His spare quills, folded into a piece of parchment, were placed at the top, and the rest of the cloak draped over the whole thing to cushion it.

Next, the books. He brought his old textbooks to school each year, in case they were useful and to keep them out of his father’s hands. Those and the novels he brought with him were stacked in tightly packed layers, his blank parchment pressed between them to keep it flat. Only a few were set aside for more careful packing. His mother’s pouch of gobstones was dropped on top, with about a third of his wizarding money hidden inside in a secret inner pocket. Finally, he folded his clothes (except for tonight’s pyjamas and tomorrow’s outfit) and packed them into the remaining space. His few toiletries and the last of his laundry, he could add in the morning.

Satisfied, he closed his trunk and locked it. The remainder of his possessions were too private, too valuable, or too useful to be packed there; for now, he gathered them up in tomorrow’s robe, shrank the whole bundle, and tucked it into his satchel. He would pack them properly somewhere he had more privacy. But first, he had a letter to read.

It had been dropped into his lap at breakfast by Arcturus, along with an unmistakably book-shaped package, and it had Master Nilsdatter’s seal on the back. He could have opened it then and there, but he’d found himself wanting to savour it. Now, in the quiet of his empty dorm room, he cracked open the seal and unfolded the letter.

_ “Magistra Marta Nilsdatter Severo Snapei salutem dicit _ ,” she wrote, though the rest of the letter was in English.

_ “Congratulations on completing your exams! Intensive examinations are a trial regardless of knowledge and skill level, but I have no doubt you did well. I look forward to hearing your results when our correspondence resumes in September. _

_ The gift sent with this letter has three purposes. _

_ First, to congratulate you on completing both your exams, as mentioned above, and the current stage of your education. The transition between what Hogwarts calls OWL-level and NEWT-level studies is a significant one, as for the first time, students have true control of what they study, and so their classes begin to reflect their true interests and capabilities. _

_ Second, to assist you in practicing your academic Latin over the summer. Your skills have improved considerably, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so, but I find that language practice is always more pleasant when the topic is interesting. _

_ Third, to inspire you towards further studies after your graduation. Flamel’s  _ _ Works by New Masters _ _ is a series I recommend to most apprentices, and all journeymen, as it specifically represents the level of scholarship exercised by those who have newly attained their mastery. Nicholas Flamel has put out an edition every five years or so for the past five hundred, each one accepting only those works written by potions and alchemy masters who reached mastery since one year before publication of the previous edition.  _

_ This specific edition, the most recent, contains works by those who reached mastery between 1967 and 1973, including one of my past apprentices, Master Szarlota Szymańska. Szarlota has made a particular study of the qualities of dragon ‘bile’ in various species, and shares here her recommendations for containing and handling it. (Dragon bile is not true bile, being produced by an organ unique to dragons, and having similarly unique qualities. It is the most volatile substance produced by any species I am aware of, and is almost always destroyed during the butchering process for safety reasons.) _

_ You should know that I would be extremely surprised if you easily understood the articles in this book - even disregarding the language barrier. They are all advanced work, written for those familiar with advanced work and the latest scholarship, and they cover a broad range of topics and specialisations. If you decided to pursue a mastery in potions, you would most likely not be working at this level for at least ten years. I hope that you will find the challenge stimulating rather than frustrating, and I encourage you to take note of any questions you have so that we may discuss them when our correspondence resumes.  _

_ I wish you a pleasant summer, and look forward to receiving your next letter. _

_ Marte Nilsdatter” _

The book was bound in dark blue leather, the words  _ Opera Magistrorum Novorum _ stamped in gold on the spine. When Severus opened it, he could feel the resistance in the binding that marked it as brand new, unread, the creamy paper still crisp and new-smelling. It was probably the most expensive gift he had ever received, yet its cost was only a small part of its value.

The contents page listed twenty-eight chapters, and his familiarity with Latin was just enough to tantalise him as he guessed at their topics. When he leafed through the first chapter, he saw pages thick with text in two dense columns, followed by a long list of other texts the author had presumably been informed by. 

This was more than a book. It was a treasure trove.

Suddenly, protecting his things took on far greater importance, and Severus gathered them up and hurried away to one of the lesser-used potions labs. There were no portraits in the labs to gossip about him, due to the risk of damage from potions vapours, and no-one was in this part of the castle right now. He set up an alarm spell to alert him if someone put a hand on the door, and locked it with a second-year spell. Nothing that would give him away, but enough to give him time to react.

On the floor behind the teacher’s desk, invisible from the door, he laid out his things, the back of his neck prickling at the vulnerability of it. Nevertheless, it was necessary. He had spellwork to do to protect it all.

A stack of books. Paper, quills, ink, and pencils. A few handkerchiefs. A small pile of wizarding and muggle coins, and four pound notes. A pack of cards. His small sewing kit. And lastly, a disposable bic lighter.

The lighter had been his great innovation the summer after third year, though he couldn’t finish modifying it until he'd gotten back to Hogwarts and could do magic again. He had carefully cut off the base of the reservoir, emptied it, cleaned it, and used it to hide his most precious possessions.

Now, he enlarged it to the size of a loaf of bread, and took out each item to look it over. Eight books from Lily, well-worn and well-read birthday presents, a few photos of them tucked inside. He added this year’s gift,  _ The Earthsea Trilogy _ , to the stack, and carefully put them back inside. 

A rolled up piece of parchment with his family tree, written in his mother's hand. The ink, originally black, had turned dark brown with time, but had faded very little. He looked over the names he had studied so fervently when he was last this age, and dismissed them. The Prince family held no interest for him now. He put the parchment back, and added to it the stack of letters from Master Nilsdatter. His book of copies would suffice for the summer; he wanted the originals better protected. The last one, however, he kept out, placing it with the book it had accompanied.

His final addition to the bic was some emergency money, tied up in a scrap of cloth. Two pound notes and a galleon's worth of sickles left him with precious little funds to spare, but if he ever  _ needed _ his emergency funds, he'd better have enough to do something with.

Satisfied, he fitted the base of the bic back on, looked it over one last time, and undid his enlarging spell. It shrank to its original size, and with it, so did its contents - yet no spell would be able to reveal any magic on it, because there was none. For all intents and purposes, it was simply a used up muggle lighter.

His secondary planned hiding place was less secure, but could be accessed during the summer when he couldn't use his wand. He cut a slit in the lining of his satchel and placed a minor expansion charm on the space inside - the sort of spell used to keep pockets from bulging. Into  _ that _ space he placed his book of copied letters and the gift from Master Nilsdatter, before neatly sewing up the slit again.

To hide the remainder of his money - two pounds, sixty three pence, thirteen sickles, and nine knuts - he made a pouch out of a folded handkerchief, and used the same charm to hide that there was anything inside it. Finally, he dropped it in the bottom of his satchel, with the bic, a few scrunched up pieces of paper, and a couple of broken quills for camouflage. The sort of debris that ended up at the bottom of anyone’s bag at the end of term.

On top of it all, he packed his potions and charms textbooks, his copied Latin grammar, blank paper, inkpot, quills, pen-knife, pencils, and pencil sharpener. Useful things he’d prefer to keep with him, and in the case of his textbooks, that he’d prefer to keep out of others’ hands. He looked it all over one last time, checking that nothing seemed out of place, then gathered up his things and set about erasing his presence from the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are so many things I know more details about than actually appeared onscreen. Hopefully this chapter was interesting despite the lack of action and dialogue!


	12. 2325

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long trip home from Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder, since they haven't shown up since chapter 5 - Lily's friends are Julie Taylor of Hufflepuff, Diane Martin of Ravenclaw, and Marlene McKinnon and Alice Fawley (later, Longbottom) of Gryffindor. Severus started joining their study table in early February.

There were very few, Severus reflected, as he watched the ‘horseless’ carriages line up outside the Great Hall, who would have had the opportunity to experiment with what qualified someone to see thestrals. When he had lived this year the last time, they had been invisible to him. Now, they were not. 

The staff obviously went to some effort to preserve the illusion until loss of innocence broke it. The traces linking each thestral to the carriage behind it were invisible, though Severus knew they must be there. While some of the thestrals were calm, others stamped and bated with impatience, and the staff did not flinch. As empty carriages arrived back from Hogsmeade to collect another load, Professor Kettleburn was waiting to look the thestrals over and give them some water, but he did it discreetly enough that Severus wouldn’t have known what he was doing if he didn’t know to look for it. 

He hadn’t bothered going back to his dormitory after breakfast. He was already packed, and he had no interest in spending extra time with his dorm-mates. If he had to wait for Lily to be ready to go, he’d wait out here, where there was sunshine and staff supervision. 

“Four to a carriage!” Professor Cranshaw was calling out to the students as they emerged into the courtyard. “Once you’ve got a group of four, go to Professor McGonagall! Is anyone having trouble forming a group of four? Stick your hand up and I’ll find you a group!”

As each group reached Professor McGonagall, she confirmed their names and ticked them off in a book, then ushered them into a waiting carriage. A tap of her wand, and their trunks appeared on the luggage rack at the back. A brusque “Off you go”, and the thestral began to pull the carriage towards the Hogsmeade path.

Severus watched the more or less controlled chaos until Lily and her friends started to arrive. Lily spotted him right away and came over with Marlene and Julie. “Hey, Sev,” she called out. “Any sign of Diane? She was  _ supposed _ to meet us at nine, but Julie went past Ravenclaw Tower on her way to Gryffindor and apparently she got caught up with something last night and had to finish packing.”

“We gave up on Alice,” Marlene added, swapping her bag to her other shoulder. “She was waiting on Frank, and  _ he _ was waiting on Prewett, and  _ Prewett _ was talking fireworks with Black.” She rolled her eyes.

Severus smiled slightly and shook his head. “It’s mostly been younger students so far,” he said. “I would have spotted Diane.” Diane had been the tallest in their year by a good six inches until one of the Hufflepuff boys caught up to her this spring, and even then, she was one of the tallest girls in school. 

The wind changed direction, blowing Lily’s hair into her face. “Ugh,” she said, spitting it out of her mouth. “Does anyone have a hair tie? How come this doesn’t happen to you, Sev?”

“Brylcreem,” he replied, amused. He could put up with his hair looking oily if it stayed out of his face, and long hair didn’t look messy when you had a long time without a cut. 

“Oh, just let me braid it, Lils,” Julie said, exasperated, after watching her wrestle with it for a minute. “This is the problem with having thick hair, you can’t fit it in a hair tie.”

Lily scowled, but gave up on doing it herself and turned her back to Julie. “I put so much  _ work _ into this this morning,” she complained. “With the hot comb and everything!”

“Braids are practical,” Julie said complacently, efficiently gathering Lily’s hair into three thick sections. She wasn’t wearing a braid herself - her hair was kept back from her face with a teal scarf. “There,” she said a few moments later, tying off the braid and dropping it over Lily’s shoulder. “Next time, plan better.”

Lily gasped in mock outrage and spun, lunging for her. Julie danced away, laughing, and hid behind Marlene. “Traitor!” Lily accused her. “I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be  _ loyal _ -”

“Hufflepuffs are supposed to be  _ sensible _ ,” Julie countered, grinning. Unseen, Severus snuck up behind her and tugged on her hair.

Julie shrieked in surprise, going for her wand as she turned, only to find Severus standing with hands raised in surrender. “Oh,” she said. “It’s you.”

“Mm,” Severus agreed. He glanced at Lily and quirked an eyebrow. “Sufficient revenge?”

“Maybe  _ Severus _ is the loyal Hufflepuff,” Marlene suggested, her eyes sparkling. “And  _ Julie’s _ actually a Slytherin who’s infiltrated Hufflepuff to lull us into a sense of securit-”

“Oh good, you’re all still here!” Diane called out, hurrying towards them with a sweater hanging out of her bag and a quill behind her ear, her curly hair all over the place. “I thought I’d be the last one here and have to track you down when I made it to the train.”

“No, that’s Alice,” Marlene reassured her. “Honestly, I think I’m going to have to go find her. If she’s  _ still _ waiting on Prewett…”

“ _ One _ of us should wait for her,” Julie said firmly. “We can’t fit five in a carriage anyway - if Frank’s talking to Tristan, Alice and whoever stays behind can go with them.”

Marlene heaved a put-upon sigh. “Don’t you dare volunteer, Julie, you were ready before any of us,” she said. “I’ll go find them. You lot can be a matched set of House representatives and get us a good compartment at the other end.”

“If we go now, there’s a gap in the queue,” Severus pointed out. Several carriages had left since nine o’clock, emptying out the courtyard a little of the early arrivers. 

The idea met with general approval, and after a bit of a scramble, the four of them - Lily, Julie, Diane, and Severus - were moving smoothly towards Hogsmeade. 

“So,” Lily said cheerfully, “what are you all looking forward to this summer?”

“Going to the cinema!”

“Not having to climb stairs every bloody day.”

“Sleeping in!”

“Making my own tea, with an actual kettle, whenever I want.”

“Wearing trousers without getting funny looks.”

“Having my own  _ room _ again!”

The girls continued in this way for the entire ten minutes of their trip to the station, listing all their favourite things about the muggle world and being home and school holidays in general. Severus didn’t contribute, but he listened with a slight smile. It never would have occurred to him to list the  _ good _ things about going home, but it was nice to be reminded that the muggle world had its charms - the muggle world outside Spinners End, anyway.

Soon enough the carriage pulled to a stop, and they heard the odd duet of Hagrid and Professor Flitwick outside, accompanied by the thumps of trunks landing on the ground and the hiss of steam. Finding a compartment was always a nuisance, so Diane went ahead to scout one out while Flitwitck levitated their trunks down from the back of the carriage and sent it on to Hagrid. Eventually, Diane stuck her head out one of the windows, and the group levitated their trunks through the nearest door of the train, down the corridor, and into their compartment. Trunks shoved into the expanded space under the seats, bags tucked up in the luggage rack, and compartment door locked, they began to settle in for the long trip to London.

\-----

Four hours later, the train went into the tunnels that would carry it from the edge of London to its centre, and Lily sighed in relief. “I can’t wait to get off this train,” she complained. “It’s a very nice train, but it’s ridiculous that we can’t go home without coming all the way to London first.”

“That’s right, you’re in...Birmingham?” Diane replied, frowning as she tried to remember. “A hundred miles or so north-west, that’s got to be at least an hour to get there from here.”

“An hour and a half to Birmingham on the train,” Severus confirmed.

“And another half an hour in Dad’s car to get to Cokeworth, where we actually live,” Lily added, staring up at the ceiling. “If I have to sit down for another two hours without going for a walk, I think my bum will fall off.”

“You still haven’t got the floo at your place?” Marlene asked, standing up to stretch her arms above her head. “Damn.”

Lily scoffed. “You think I’m telling the Ministry where I live and setting up a channel for arseholes to get into my house just so I can visit wizard places for three months of the year? Bugger that.”

“I wouldn’t get the floo at mine either,” Diane agreed. “Even if it  _ does _ mean school shopping is a bit of an expedition.”

“If I’m lucky, I’m going to be commuting to Diagon this summer,” Severus muttered. “I’m not looking forward to taking the Knight Bus twice a day.”

Julie winced. “You’d better have a strong stomach,” she warned. “I took the Knight Bus to Alice’s birthday thing last year, it was a nightmare.”

“Oh!” Lily clapped her hands. “Sev! Sev, I have the  _ best _ idea!”

Diane and Marlene exchanged looks. “Uh-oh,” Marlene murmured.

“Shut up, you,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “Sev, what if we go to Diagon before we go home? We’ll just get a later train, there’s plenty of them. You can see who’s hiring, maybe get something lined up if you’re lucky.”

It...wasn’t a bad thought. At least he wouldn’t be paying the cost of the bus for a day he wouldn’t earn anything. “We’ll have to warn your parents we’ll be late,” he pointed out. “And what are we going to do with our trunks?”

Lily waved a hand dismissively. “We’ll shrink them before we get off the train and unshrink them when we’re about to leave Diagon. The Trace doesn’t work there, we’ll be fine. And I can find a payphone to call home.”

Severus knew Lily probably wouldn’t be so enthusiastic if she hadn’t been so eager to take a break before getting on another train, but that was fine. If there’d been nothing in it for her, he’d have felt awkward about it all. “...I suppose I’d better retrieve my robe, then,” he conceded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, but frankly, I've learned not to expect consistent update schedules from myself. I tend to rotate between projects - my fic The Head of the House of Slytherin has been getting a lot of attention recently, but I hit a stopping point in creative energy and was able to write this chapter!
> 
> This fic continues to be the domain of OCs, so I hope you like them!


	13. 2322

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus' first day at his summer job

The Knight Bus was just as bad as predicted. Three sickles for a jolting, noisy trip of unknown duration - he’d already been on the bus half an hour, and they’d dropped people off and picked them up everywhere from Aberystwyth to Aberdeen, and if there was a logic to where they stopped when, he hadn’t yet grasped it. He had a steady stomach, but when he was finally dropped off outside the Leaky Cauldron, he had to take a minute to get used to being on solid ground again. 

He checked his watch and scowled. Forty-seven minutes to get to London from Cokeworth. It was more than twice as fast as muggle transport, but if he could only damn well apparate, it wouldn’t have taken forty-seven seconds. 

Well. One way or another, he was here, and he was due at his new job at eight. He made his way through the back of the Leaky Cauldron, and took a right turn just past Florian Fortescue’s to get through to Fairings Square. At this time of morning, it was still quiet, but when he emerged onto Pivot Alley, the street was already bustling. The butchers had unshuttered their windows, the smell of fresh bread was floating through the air, and up ahead, Mrs Jemima Stimpson of J. Stimpson’s Fine Fruit and Vegetables was putting out baskets of potatoes, apples, and oranges on the street outside the shop. 

“Oh good!” she said when she caught sight of him. “Bright and early, that’s what I like to see. Here, give me a hand with this and I’ll take you through to the back.”

It didn’t take long to load up the display out the front, and Severus dutifully followed Mrs Stimpson through the front part of the store, behind the counter, into the back storeroom, and through a side door to a small office. 

“Pop your bag down here,” she said briskly. “Now, we’ll just change that robe of yours to a nice mint green and give you an apron, and then we’ve got orders to get ready. We’ve been terribly short-handed since what happened to poor David, and my Matthew’s out doing the early deliveries round the Alley. We don’t get many customers in before nine, usually, but there’s plenty to do.” She looked over his charm job on his robes (underage wizards were allowed to use their wands after their OWLs if they were on the job) and nodded approvingly. “Good, that’s just the right colour. Down you come, then, and let’s get you used to the layout of the place.”

Mrs Stimpson's idea of 'getting him used to the layout of the place' was to hand him a basket and read out orders for him to gather, item by item, while she weighed them, noted down prices, and packed them into cardboard boxes and paper bags. “We’ll have you doing the packing soon enough,” she told him. “So you remember, it’s heaviest at the bottom, softest at the top, and don’t let things rattle around.”

About quarter to nine, Mr Stimpson got back with his handcart, shrinking it down to put it on a shelf in the back storeroom. “Big order from Fortescue’s for tomorrow,” he reported, taking off his cap and wiping his forehead. “He’s trying something with lemon and elderflower, I think - he asked for any elderflower cordial you’ve got made up, up to half a gallon’s worth if you can do it less than two sickles a pint, or a quart if you can do it for five sickles. And then eight pounds of lemons, which I told him we can do for twelve. Oh, and when I popped through Fairings Square, Sadie’s got some lovely bunches of Sweet William - d’you want to get some for your posies?”

Mrs Stimpson narrowed her eyes, drumming her fingers on the counter. “I’ll go have a look,” she said at last. “I’ve been meaning to do the rounds. You start teaching Severus how to use the abacus.”

After the abacus, and the nightmare of calculating costs (“If it’s six knuts an ounce for potatoes, and someone buys a pound and a half, what’s the price in sickles and knuts?”), there was the morning round of deliveries by floo, and then restocking the displays that had been depleted by visiting shoppers, and all in all, by twelve o’clock, Severus was  _ very _ ready for lunch.

Mr Stimpson heard his stomach growl and smiled at him. “Ah, you’d better be along and get you something to eat, hadn’t you?” he said. “You’re a growing lad, you need a good lunch. You hop along to Stone Soup, in Fairings Square, and get yourself something - and don’t you come back for at least twenty minutes, got that?"

On investigation, Stone Soup turned out to be more of a stall than a shop, easy to find by the queue out the front and the smell on the air. 'A Sickle A Serve', the sign advertised, and Severus saw customers walking away with thick slices of bread as well. It was impressively cheap, really, less than half the cost of a cheap lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and Severus joined the queue with good grace.

"Ah, a new customer!" the stallholder said, when he got to the front of the queue. "Got a mug on you, lad, or will you be borrowing one for the day?"

"Borrowing," Severus replied, making a note to bring one from home next time. "What's in the soup?"

The man grabbed a thick-walled mug from under the counter and poured two ladlefuls of soup into it as he spoke. "Oh, a little of this, a little of that," he said with a wink, putting a thick slice of bread on top of the mug as a sort of lid. "That'll be one sickle, lad, and mind you don't walk off with the mug."

Severus thanked him and dropped his coin on the counter, then took his mug and went to sit on the rim of the fountain in the middle of the square. From there, he could watch the shoppers and take in the environment that it seemed would be his, five days a week for the next three months. He noted a second hand bookshop, tucked away in one corner, and the florist Mr Stimpson had mentioned earlier, her stall full of bright pinks, purples, and yellows. There was a little tea shop, with tables spilling out onto the cobblestones, and a pet shop, with children clustered around the front window. As he drank his soup (a mix of the vegetables that Severus now knew were currently cheapest, and bits of meat he suspected were off-cuts, but no less hearty for that), three different groups of people met up at the fountain behind him. All in all, it was exactly the sort of bustling town square that Cokeworth didn’t have. You would almost think there wasn’t a war on.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning: restocking, fetching and carrying, making up orders, and another round of floo deliveries. Even after the shop closed at five, there was work to be done in cleaning up and putting everything away. By five thirty, Severus would freely admit he was exhausted. 

"You've done good work today," Mrs Stimpson said, shooing him into the back to hang up his apron and get his bag. "And there's more where that came from tomorrow, so you'd best get along home for your supper and a good night's rest. Here." She dropped a coin in his hand, a seven-knut piece by the feel of it. “Get yourself along to one of the bakeries and get a treat for the trip home.”

Severus didn’t bother turning his robes black again, though he wasn’t a fan of mint. He’d only need to redo them tomorrow morning. He did, however, brush them off before he bundled them into his satchel, restoring himself to a passably muggle appearance. The apron had done a reasonable job of protecting them, but they weren’t exactly pristine.

As he walked down the Alley, he weighed the coin in his hand and wondered if it was worth saving. Probably. But he was feeling the long day, and he quite possibly had a long trip ahead of him, and the bakery up ahead had the leftovers of the day’s bread and cakes going cheap. In the end, he split the difference - three knuts in his pocket, four spent on a leftover lemon tart. The pastry was a bit tough, but the filling was tart and sweet, and he savoured it as he made his way back to the Leaky Cauldron for his journey home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Tl;dr:** I did a lot of worldbuilding, and I hope you enjoyed it! (Please comment?)
> 
> **Long version:** The wizarding world has an economy! It has suppliers of essential goods and services! I’ve made desperate attempts to establish what a sickle was worth in 1975!   
> Because I have no idea how much of the worldbuilding that went into this chapter will make it on screen later, here are some additional tidbits:
> 
> Pivot Alley runs approximately parallel to Diagon Alley, and is full of businesses that sell essential goods mostly bought from Muggle wholesalers. The two streets are connected at the ‘top’ end by Horizont Alley (Gringotts is at the T-intersection of Horizont and Diagon), and both Carkitt Market (near the top end) and Fairings Square (near the bottom end) lie between them, linked by small lanes. The Knockturn quarter is on the other side of Diagon. Pivot Alley and Fairings Square, I made up. The others are mentioned in various canon-related materials, although their layout is all me. 
> 
> J. Stimpson’s Fine Fruit and Vegetables was established in 1884 by John Stimpson. Since then, it has been owned by Joseph Stimpson, Jim Stimpson, and now Jemima Stimpson. Jemima Stimpson was the only child in her generation - her mother died when she was young - and when she married, her husband took her name. They have two children, Jennifer and Jeremy, who are seven and nine, respectively. During the day, the children are looked after by Matthew’s sister, Eliza, who earns a bit of money running an informal daycare/school for some of the children from Pivot Alley and surrounds. 
> 
> Severus is given a seven-knut piece. I refuse to believe that people count out sums of up to 28 knuts in individual coins. Therefore, there are three-knut and seven-knut pieces, similar to the thruppence and sixpence. They are usually referred to as a ‘trinnit’ or ‘sennit’. There is also a five-sickle piece, called a ‘star’, because it is marked with a five-pointed star on one side. 
> 
> There are 29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon, making 493 knuts to a galleon. A knut is worth approximately a penny; a galleon is worth approximately five pounds. (Yes, the UK had switched from shillings and pence to decimal currency by 1975.) Conversions between knuts, sickles, and galleons are horrible because they are all prime numbers. You also can’t calculate half, a third, a quarter, or a fifth of a galleon or sickle easily. This is because JKR prized aesthetics over functionality. In practice, shopkeepers use a special abacus for calculations, and anything involving division also involves a lot of rounding. Most things are priced for small quantities that can be multiplied, rather than large ones that can be divided. (E.g. vegetables generally have a price per ounce and a price per pound.)
> 
> I have done my best to work out what historical prices for goods in the wizarding world would be, but frankly, it’s a mess. Please excuse my inconsistencies by pretending it’s the wizards who are wrong.


End file.
